Chapter 1 – Starfire's

"But, Mom!" Axelerant cried.

"No but's about it, Mister," Starfire said, her eyes glowing green. "Now go and wash those dishes before I decide to float you in space for the next week."

I chuckled from my spot on the couch. I had a clear view of the kitchen, so I could see my green-eyed, red-headed son argue with my red-headed alien wife. I felt a pair of eyes on me, so I looked around. I spotted my youngest son, Galacia, peeking at me from around the door of his bedroom. I waved him over to me, his dark blue eyes sneaking glances into the kitchen at his big brother and his mother. He crawled into my lap, his left thumb secure in his mouth.

"Why are Bubba and Mommy fighting in the kitchen, Daddy?"

"Bubba was trying to get out of doing the dishes so that he could go and spend time with his friends, Galacia."

"Reaver! He's doing that thing he does again!"

I set Galacia on his feet and went to the kitchen to see what my alien wife was referring to, regarding our oldest son. I rolled my eyes when I saw what Starfire was freaking out about. Axelerant was doing what any "normal" 17-year-old boy would do and banging his head to the music exiting from the earphones plugged into his iTouch. I reached over and unplugged the noise emitting devices out of the jack of the small electronic device.

"Hey! Oh, hi, Dad," he said, flashing me a smile that reminded me of myself from twenty-five years earlier.

"You do realize that your mother is still 'new' to all of the little human toys and tricks we have in this house, right?"

His eyes flicked to Starfire and back to me in a split second. "What about it? Mom's been on Earth for well over twenty-five years now. I still don't see how she's not used to it, Dad."

I just stood there, one almost completely mechanical eyebrow cocked, and he resumed his task, submerging his starting to flame hands in the soapy dishwater. I smiled at my wife and Galacia, who was standing behind her legs in a generic 4-year-old way. I held my hand out to him so that I could take him to his room and tuck him in for the night. Starfire joined us, her small sad smile the only sign of her hurt from what Axelerant had said. I wrapped my free arm around her waist, allowing her head to rest on my shoulder.

Galacia was still sucking his thumb and rocking his head back and forth to a tune only he could hear. I felt myself smiling at him. I picked him up and settled him on his bed, pulling his faithful yellow and blue sheet and comforter up to his chest and settling it over him. He pulled his thumb out of his mouth long enough to kiss Starfire on the cheek and wrap his arms around my neck in a hug. I patted him on the head, turned off his bedside lamp and gently lead Starfire back to the kitchen.

"Now where did he get off to?"

"Here is a note from him," Starfire stated, holding up a small piece of paper. "It says he finished the dishes and thought it best to at least let us know that he had left to go 'hang out' with his friends from school. What do you think of it, Reaver?"

"He finished his chore as promised, so he went to spend time with the kids he spends time with at school. He'll be fine. He has his fire-starter ability and he has pretty decent control over it unless he gets mad, stressed or flat-out upset. The only one we have to worry about now is our youngest son, Galacia. I'm sure you've noticed that he seems a little…off, even by human standards? He's different and I don't mean in a normal or superhuman way, Starfire."

"He does seem a bit 'out of it,' as you put it. Wouldn't most human children stop sucking their thumbs by age four anyways?" I nodded. "And he seems to always worry about Axelerant, not himself or anything regarding himself. That is even strange for my people when they are at that age."

"When Axelerant is at school tomorrow, I will take him to Doctor Takahashi and have him checked out. He might be on the Autistic end of things."

She nodded. I pulled her to me, my metal joints screeching slightly in protest, letting me know to get Loto to oil them the next day before I took Galacia to our pediatric psychiatrist. We simply stood there in the kitchen for a few minutes, wrapped in each other's warmth and protection, when I felt a slight vibration against my left thigh. It was my cell going off with a call from Loto, no doubt.

"Reaver," I answered.

"Chrono, its Loto. Any ideas on where your eldest son might be?"

"Out with friends. Why? And quit calling me Chrono, Redemption. You know I hate to hold onto things from my past. You being the only exception of course, Brother. I've been Galactic Reaver for twenty-plus years now."

"Yeah, yeah, Brother," he chuckled, his humor getting the best of me. "I just saw Axelerant and some of his friends enter a club that is strictly twenty-one and up with photo ID. I bet more than anything he's been throwing your name around to get into the VIP areas. Not to mention, his looks rival those of his mother, Starfire."

"I'll be sure to chew him out when he gets home," I answered. "And I'll definitely tell my lovely wife that you complimented her looks. Thanks for the update, Redemption."

I closed my phone, slipped it back into my pocket and lead Starfire to our bedroom of the last twenty years. She sat on her edge of the bed, worry etching her features as she looked at me. I squatted down in front of her, taking her gloved hands in mine.

After twenty long and wonderful years, I could tell that I was slowly losing the woman that I loved more than life itself. Being away from her home planet and family for the better part of the last three decades, I knew she would want to go back to where she came from. I managed to talk her into staying until Axelerant graduated from high school and started taking on missions from Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League via the Watchtower and its AI system, Oracle.

"Twenty years in the making and I finally get to meet your parents, Starfire," I smile, still unsure of how it would affect her. "I'm sure that Galacia will feel better once he gets away from other children his age that have been teasing him about being 'different' in more ways than one. I want all of us to be in agreement on this, love."

She just looked at me, smiling her sad smile, like she knew something would either happen to her or our youngest son at some point down the road. She leaned toward me, leaning her forehead against mine, her hands resting on my shoulders like they had so many times in the past when we had first met and fell in love. I looked her straight in the eye and I knew. I just knew. The look in her eyes told me everything I needed to know.

"You will not die, Starfire. Your sons need you, the world needs you and I need you. You will NOT die when there are so many that look up to you. When we get there, we can stay as long as it takes for you to recover so that we can spend the next twenty years-"

"No amount of time on or around my home planet will cure me," she says, cutting my hopes off in mid-sentence. "This disease affects one in a million of my people every year. Some get it early in their lives and their suffering ends early. Some get it later and their suffering is prolonged. No matter how far I try to get from Tamaran, I was still affected. Besides, Tamaran is really no longer my home planet after what Blackfire did when she sold our planet's defense secrets to the Citadel, our biggest enemy. And Wildfire, my little brother, never knew a peaceful place like the Tamaran I grew up on. Our parents sent him off in an escape pod before they died, just so that he would never know the bad place that our planet had become no thanks to Blackfire."

I briefly remember her mentioning her younger sibling shortly after we got married. I still wanted her to at least see her home planet, even in passing, before she died. I said as much, making her smile her sad smile again. I stood, pressing her back onto the bed, our lips meeting in a more than passionate kiss. I pulled her shirt off and admired her perfect breasts through her favorite green and silver lacey bra.

I was just about to start nibbling my way down her neck when I heard the back door squeak open and footsteps head toward the kitchen. Good thing I had decided to wait until the coming weekend to put some WD-40 on the hinges. I pecked Starfire's cheek and met Axelerant in the kitchen while she got ready for bed. I cleared my throat to get my oldest son's head out of the fridge. He straightened up immediately, pressing his sunglasses up his nose to cover his blood-shot eyes.

"Where were you for the last few hours, Axelerant Drandel?" I asked, pointedly looking at my wrist where a watch would be. "It's after midnight. You remember that your curfew is eleven-thirty, right? For this you will be grounded and sent to Superman for the next week to help him on missions, whether he requires your help or not."

"Sorry, Dad," he chuckled. "Lost track of time. Studying for finals. You know how that goes…don't you?"

I looked at my wrist again and he scampered off to the bathroom that connected his room to Galacia's to get a shower and sleep off whatever he was doped up on. I rolled my eyes. I was already doing Justice League missions when I was his age after being abducted by one Lex Luthor when I was no older than eleven. I went back to the master bedroom to join Starfire in sweet slumber.

I changed into my pajamas and slipped under the covers, spooning around my wife of twenty years. Her even breathing was enough to lull me to sleep and sweet dreams. My dreams were certainly sweet that night until I heard something buzzing in my ear several times before I felt an arm reach over me to turn it off.